Bob Huggins Sounds Off on Underperforming Mountaineers

By marcvilas

David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE

Coach Bob Huggins is not known to be warm or approachable in any sense of the word. In fact, Huggins is probably one of the more gruff coaches of all-time and he did not do anything to hurt that ranking with recent comments about his own team. Huggins lashed out at his team, the West Virginia Mountaineers, following their 27-point loss to Purdue by calling into question their effort level and insinuating he is ready to move on from this group.

Many, including myself, had high expectations for West Virginia this year. They were a collection of talented players under a talented coach with 718 career wins. A perfect match, right? Wrong. Huggins cannot seem to reach this group saying in his post game radio show, “I’ve never in my coaching career not been able to get guys to compete. We don’t compete… That shouldn’t stop us from guarding, it shouldn’t keep us from rebounding, it sure doesn’t cause you to throw the ball away.”

He is so upset by his team’s level of play he has gone as far as apologizing to the fans, “I want to apologize to our fans, apologize to the people in the state of West Virginia. This is totally unacceptable. This is not what we’re supposed to represent and hopefully they have enough faith in me that I will fix it.”

The Mountaineers are 8-9 on the season and 1-3 in their first year in the Big 12 after bailing on the Big East. Huggins is not going to put up with such mediocrity at his Alma Mater and basically said so with another comment Saturday night, “I’m going to go recruit, which obviously I really need to do”. The players are now on notice. Higgins, one of the most popular Mountaineers of all-time is not going anywhere, but the players will either move along with him or he will move them out of his way.